


Reunion of Spouses

by Merfilly



Series: Safehaven [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Relationships, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-11 23:08:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7911154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ahsoka and Padmé talk, leading to Padmé going to take care of the matter of one Sith Lord.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion of Spouses

Shaak Ti watched in pride over both Roo Roo and Ahsoka, as the Knight gently closed the bond they had shared through the training. She then reached her hands to the young Padawan, younger than most would have taken, but times had changed. Unhesitatingly, the Gungan child gave her hands over and opened to the offer of a new bond. 

Gungans were a people that Shaak Ti had found much joy in. She could appreciate their life in harmony with nature, and marvel at their appreciation of technology, well-crafted, as a tool. Making the choice to finally accept a padawan after so long without one had been easier for having watched this youngling grow into a steady and calm learner in the ways of the Force.

When the bond was firm, they both stepped back to see Ahsoka was smiling fondly at them.

"Fives and Tack going with you?" The question was more to affirm that Shaak was ready to go now.

"Yes. You need Echo too much for me to take him now. We should not be gone long." She then tipped her head slightly. "You are certain you will not take the twins now?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "Tempting, it is," she said, unconsciously imitating Yoda. "But I think the changes I feel in the air, the Visions both have had, mean that a crystal found now will not fit who they will become."

Shaak moved to embrace her young hunt-sister, holding it a long while. "You have become a wise Huntress, Ahsoka, well before time. May the Force be with you."

"And you, Master Ti. Be safe." Ahsoka dropped and embraced Roo Roo. "You, scamp, be good for your master now."

"Meesa good always," the padawan protested, but she smiled and hugged Ahsoka back.

They headed off to find Fives and Tack, so they could go on to the surface and begin the journey to find Roo Roo's crystal for a proper lightsaber. Ahsoka tried hard to keep the worry to a minimum, and went to find Padmé. It had been several days, and there had been one comm requesting an update. Ahsoka didn't want to test the man's patience much further.

The woman was upright, sitting at the table in her apartment, Tup and Jar Jar with her, helping answer questions as she shuffled through the events of the years she had missed. Kix had deemed it light enough duty for Tup, and Jar Jar felt it was his duty. Ahsoka considered where the others were. Kix would probably be handling clinic hours for the Gungans, as he had learned their medicine quickly. Rex was supposed to be having blaster training for the twins today. Echo would still be patched into the reports coming from all over the galaxy about the internecine fighting of the Empire, and the growing boldness of rebellious worlds. That just left Tinker at odds… and Tinker was probably already neck deep in an engine or generator with his Gungan friends. She never had to worry about him getting into trouble.

"Ahsoka!" Padmé looked at her and smiled, coming out of her reading for the moment.

"Padmé, if I could borrow your time at some point today?"

"Now is fine. Jar Jar, thank you so much. I'll see you later. Tup, you have been so kind to fill me in from the military analysis side of things," Padmé said graciously, and both men rose, leaving with a nod and wave to the Togruta. Ahsoka took the seat Tup had vacated as it was closer to her friend.

"I have told you that we manipulated Vader into attacking the Emperor, in order to find a way to save you," Ahsoka said. "It was fully my plan, and I acknowledge I took a risk with your safety and the twins' safety, but we had to do something." She noted Padmé was watching her keenly and felt like she was a padawan all over again, unnerved by that steady, determined intelligence. "He knows a child was born. I did not betray that there were two, on the off-chance it was needed as emotional leverage later. But he is intent on communicating with you."

"You're still in contact with him."

"An encrypted link, one that Echo has done his absolute best to keep from being traceable."

Padmé considered that for a long, hard moment. "I do not want to speak with him here, or with the twins present. So I will need you to arrange a location, and ask one of your men to take me."

Ahsoka shook her head. "Two men, and I cannot guarantee that he will not insist on the children being present. He made me personally responsible for your safety, and theirs. Even if he believes it is only one. As Luke has had visions from Vader's perspective, I think he is trying to use the Force connection to find them. Leia has always been better at shielding, but she's beginning to have glimpses as well, possibly as bleed-over from Luke."

Padmé's jaw firmed. "You will be seeing to my safety, through effective use of your command. Tell him my wishes, and go from there."

"As you wish, Padmé."

+++

Rex and Tinker wound up being the pair to go with Padmé. It had actually shocked Ahsoka that Vader had not even brought up the children, that he had agreed and named a fairly quiet planetoid whose sole significance in the galaxy was that it produced a highly sought industrial gemstone in quantity.

Padmé had wavered on accepting Rex's presence, after she actually saw the way Ahsoka had kissed him at the ship's hatch, had realized that the reason he was _buir_ to the twins was that he was very much Ahsoka's lover and partner. She hadn't really had time and interaction to pick up on relationships, only knowing that the men and the pair of Jedi were very touch-oriented, with casual embraces and shoulder clasps the norm.

"They're both going," Ahsoka had insisted. "I can't spare Echo; Tup's still recovering, and Kix has to take care of him. So you will have my Captain and my engineer, and that is all there is to it!"

Now, sitting in the co-pilot position as Rex handled the piloting duties (and there had been a few grumbles at doing it, but all in good-natured tones), she found herself considering what she wanted. 

Foremost in her mind was a need to protect the twins and their caretakers. That was one reason she had agreed at all to this and insisted it not happen on Naboo. Beyond that? She had a hazy wish to find Anakin's sanity. She did not doubt that there was still good inside him, yet her frantic scramble to learn all she had missed had tempered that belief with an awareness that he was, very much, the very kind of monster that could not be trusted with any kind of power.

How had it happened? That last week of events she remembered still plagued her, made her question if she had missed some kind of warning sign. How had she managed to lose her husband to the Sith?

"Don't over-think the past," Rex suddenly warned her. She looked over, thinking it was Ahsoka with the mind-reading trick. "And no, not a _jetii_. Your eyebrows are all scrunched up and with where I am taking you, it's no shock to guess you're trying to figure out Vader."

"What are your thoughts on him?"

Rex settled back, now that they were in hyperspace, and considered that. "I know that events were very clearly designed to get as many people as my General trusted away from him before it all happened. I'm surprised he had his mech still. The only one of those that was on purpose by him was possibly me, because Coric was originally going to lead for Ahsoka's team. The General insisted she have me at her back, though, because we knew we were going into deep Seppie territory.

"What happened, from the views of the three Jedi Masters? Doesn't sound a damn bit like the man I fought with and bled for. But neither does the idea of my own brothers gunning down innocent younglings and their own generals. Even after having subdued Tup to keep my Commander alive."

Padmé frowned. "She said she deflected his attacks."

"Second blast, she did," Rex said, shaking his head. "Took the first shot along her ribs, knocked her back into the ducting. That's why the one montral's a bit odd just where it starts to curve. We got him down so she didn't have to fight any more."

The woman made a mental note to always check Ahsoka's version of events with Rex then. "So you don't think Vader is a fully consensual part of Anakin?"

"One way to put it. Though, I might go more with the idea that he had piss-poor intel, maybe, and made the wrong choices. Either way, my General? Could never have gone back from the events that Kenobi and Ti related to us. Don't much know Yoda to decide if I can trust his perceptions, but those two? I do." He wasn't one of those nurtured by Shaak Ti, but he'd commanded a hell of a lot of men that matured under her guidance, and had learned respect for her that way. Having come to know her as a person, a member of his family, even? He understood why those shineys had come to him with a little bit of love for her.

"And that's where I have to find a new path, and try to persuade him to it." Padmé considered that, before sighing. "Echo's reports say he's not doing much more than eliminating those that attack him, in the aftermath of the Emperor's supposed death. He hasn't actually moved to consolidate power."

"As a Sith, he should be," Rex said. "But not all Sith remain that way. Much as I still hate the bald-headed harpy, she turned against Dooku and went to her people. 'Soka says she's a hell of a leader when she has to be… but mostly is focusing on guiding rather than ruling."

"Ventress?" Padmé said it in surprise.

Rex grunted at the name. "A necessary nuisance, I suppose."

"Unlikely events lead to unlikely allies," Padmé answered that, before contemplating Vader more. "He's going to want access to his child… and I cannot keep from him that he has twins. But I do not want them corrupted. Ahsoka doesn't seem to be teaching them as strictly as I saw in some Jedi with their students."

"She wouldn't, milady." Rex smiled fondly. "She told Shaak the first time Leia floated her bottle over that they were going to grow up free, and able to make choices the whole way through. Shaak agreed, said the old ways had to stay buried, and new ones needed to be found."

"Wasn't Master Ti on the Council?"

"She was, but from what 'Soka has said, and a few stories Fives has shared, Shaak was unconventional for a long time, a bit like Master Koon."

"That makes sense, I guess." Padmé drew in a long breath, releasing it very slowly as she tried to consider options. "He's going to have to consent to neutral ground if he wants to see the children. I can't risk them. I won't lose them. And I will not bring danger to any of you, or Naboo."

"Begging pardon, milady, but if you are going to keep tangling up with him, the clan needs to leave Naboo. Before one of us is traced back there," Rex said. "Maybe a freighter that we could rig with quarters, take on a bit of trade, and live free that way," he suggested. "Then you, and the biters, can meet up with with him anywhere that's convenient and safe, without endangering any people. And we can set down at several ports, exposing the biters to more people than they can meet on Naboo."

"Is this why Ahsoka keeps you around? For such sage advice?" Padmé teased him.

"Some. She also happens to like the way I fit her bed."

That made the human woman laugh, at that blunt admission of sexuality, and he smiled, having hoped to ease her worries.

+++

Tinker's hindbrain wanted to have his blasters in his hands from the moment they were surrounded by the small, sharp looking beings. He didn't know their species, didn't know what kind of weapons they might be hiding, but knew they were dangerous. From the Captain's shoulders, he knew it too. He'd never been so glad for their _beskar'gam_ , cut closer to the Mandalorian style, even the helmets, as right then. 

Maybe especially the helmets, as it let him know where the ones behind them were.

They were guided to a shuttle, and there, the small figures tried to deny he and the Captain entry.

"I will see milady to your lord, and only then remain apart from her," Rex growled, hands flexing a certain way that put the beings more clearly on a threat level that could explode any moment. "I have a duty to her, just as you do to your lord. Would you ever take him to a hostile location and just stop short of the ending?"

His words had an impact. "You take her. Brother-warrior remains with us," the leader of the group said.

Rex nodded, and Tinker came to a stop that put him at parade-rest to wait.

+++

Vader had instructed that only Padmé come aboard, but the instant he saw the blue and gray armor, with the prominent decoration of Jaig Eyes on the helm and shoulder patch, he knew only bloodshed would have prevented this man from seeing his charge all the way to him. He felt a deep coldness concerning the armored warrior, a need to keep him at arm's distance, and so did not acknowledge his presence. Instead, he focused on the woman at his side, hidden in a flame-cloak, all orange and red and obscuring the identity of its wearer.

"Thank you, Captain," Padmé said from inside the cowl of her cloak, confirming that the presence he was already savoring really was his beloved wife. "I will be perfectly fine in Lord Vader's company now."

"Yes, milady," Rex answered, giving her a small salute before leaving her there. 

Once Rex was off the shuttle, and Vader had sealed the hatch, he took the last few steps to stand closer to Padmé, hands rising to push, carefully, the hood away from her face. That she let him was a powerful gesture in itself, but then he could see her.

She was exactly as his memories told him she should be, which jarred him on an instinctive level, with the time that had passed. Yet, as he looked in her eyes, he saw no fear. He saw no confusions to exploit. The cobwebs that had obscured events in her apartment, on Mustafar, were all gone… and he felt more naked before her than he ever had before any other person.

"We have a lot of negotiation ahead of us, Lord Vader, so I suggest you take me somewhere we can both sit and be comfortable," she informed him without any hesitation in her voice at all.

He knew he should be angry for her tone, that he should be in control… but she was so perfectly herself that he gave way to her fierce determination.

"This way, then, Lady Amidala."

+++

Padmé did not give any details to Rex or Tinker the entire trip back. The meeting with Vader had lasted for two days and a single night, during which time Rex and Tinker had spoken a little with the honor guard. They turned out to be of a race called Noghri, and were fanatically dedicated to Darth Vader.

Now, as the ship landed and they prepared for the trip down to the city, Padmé caught Rex's hand. "Your suggestion went over well, but now we need to speak to all of the clan, to learn who is willing, or if there is a different approach to take."

"Milady, we go where you and the biters need us," he said gruffly.

She shook her head. "No, Rex. I am the new part of what you and Ahsoka and the rest have made work as a functional family and unit. This comes to the discussion table, and then we decide."

He sighed, then nodded, before helping her into the small submersible.

**Author's Note:**

> buir - parent, jetii - jedi, beskar'gam - armor


End file.
